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RCMP seeking stolen items

After a number of theft and vandalism crimes occurred throughout the past month, the Strathcona County RCMP is reaching out to the community as both a warning and request for information.

Working with Crime Stoppers, the RCMP sent out a release requesting information about four separate criminal cases that covered theft, mischief and vandalism.

"When these offences occur, for the most part they're done at night time under the cover of darkness and we run into difficulties in identifying suspects and solving them because there's no witnesses," RCMP Constable Wally Henry said.

Details of the various cases include a 1998 white Ford F150 pick-up truck containing a variety of tools for building wooden fences that was stolen on July 4 between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m. from a residence on Georgian Way in Sherwood Park. Sometime between 11 p.m. on July 11 and 9a.m. on July 12, $3,000 worth of tools and instruments and three suitcases of personal items valued at $2,000 were stolen from a vehicle parked outside a residence in Balmoral Heights.

Besides theft from vehicles, the RCMP also noted 13 vehicles were vandalized with spray paint between 12:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. on July 20, costing thousands of dollars to repair. Theft also occurred in rural Strathcona County from several mailboxes between 3 p.m. on July 26 and 11 a.m. on July 27. A number of common letters, as well as parcels and the mailboxes themselves, were either stolen or damaged in Aspen Heights, Country Club Estates and the Ranchlands subdivisions, as well as in Ardrossan.

The message also served as a warning to let county residents know what's happening in their community and to be careful of becoming victims of theft themselves. According to Henry, as common as theft is, it's the most preventable crime in Strathcona County.

"With all the public education and information that people have, the majority of residents know that they shouldn't leave valuables in their car and that they should lock their vehicles that're parked outside," Henry said.

"That message has been disseminated and given out on numerous occasions. Things such as removing your garage door opener, if you leave your vehicle parked outside, not leaving any loose change in the console, not leaving any valuables in public view (and) locking the vehicle."

Henry advised residents to keep an eye out for the potential offenders in these cases to be selling the material they stole. Those with knowledge of the items stolen could notice the property being sold back to them, and through reporting the case they could avoid buying stolen property.

"Criminals may sit on property for a certain period of time until they think nobody's paying attention or that people have forgotten about it, then they'll sell it," Henry said.

"This is just to jog people's memory and remind them there is stolen property out there and if there's somebody looking to sell property at a drastically discounted price, then the buyer needs to be vigilant in making sure that the transaction's legitimate and that they're not buying stolen property."

If county residents do have information on any of these crimes, they can call the Strathcona County RCMP at 780-467-7741 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Any information anonymously given to Crime Stoppers that leads to an arrest can be rewarded with up to $2,000.